Wrapping up the School Year

Sometimes I get so behind on blogging that it's tempting to just stop. This blog has always been a good, helpful record for me. Like right now I'm really wondering how long it's been since Luke voluntarily watched television. I think it's been since February. I think this is his longest strike to date; I wish I'd blogged about when it began. And while his scripting has nearly vanished (except about once a day he insists I say "Jumpin Judy let's jump!"), I miss TV. I miss those precious moments when he would get absorbed in a video. But I don't miss the guilt when I didn't pull him away from the television enough.

So why no blogging? I know you're dying to know. You've bombarded me with comments begging me to come back. Well, who knew how busy the end of the school year is? Ms. Judy's birthday, teacher appreciation week, field day . . . I've been at school a lot lately. It's been a lot of fun, but time consuming.

Two more days of preschool this year. Two more days with Ms. Judy. If you've read the blog much at all, you know how much we LOVE Ms. Judy. But with her and other therapists guidance, we've decided to move Luke to another teacher's room next year. He's so attached to Judy and he's been with her a year and half. Another full year with her could make the move to kindergarten even harder. So we made the decision to move him to Mrs. Jenny's class. And then we learned that next year Mrs. Jenny's class is moving from Walnut Grove to Hunter's Bend, which is our neighborhood school and where Luke will go to kindergarten. I think this will be a great chance for Luke to become familiar with the school while still in the super supportive preschool environment. And then I learned on Friday that Mrs. Jenny will be teaching summer school. So a great chance for Luke to get more comfortable with her in an even smaller setting. Yah! Praise God for the way the details are coming together!

So, within the last few weeks Luke's had some great moments. He went to his first birthday party at Pump It Up. I decided we couldn't avoid it any longer, but I knew it would be overwhelming. But I was among friends, friends who are all to familiar with children who get easily overwhelmed. So we got there and he wanted to leave but I told him he had to stay for 10 minutes. After I dragged him to the inflatables and made him play, he had a ball and we stayed the whole time. He chased his buddy Andrew everywhere and when we got home he told me "Andrew is a good friend." So glad they'll be in the same class next year.

And Mother's Day. Well, Lamar had to work. But he did arrange for Luke to give me an ipod so I'm now joining the 21st century. Or maybe the late 90's. I can even download video, though I can't figure out why I would want to watch videos that small. I've heard rumor of some device that will connect the ipod to our TV. Doubtful it's compatible with our old TVs though. Here's a couple photos of from Mother's Day:

Yep, pink shirt and seersucker shorts. It was Mother's Day so I picked my favs.

Hanging out with Mimi and Papa on Mother's Day afternoon. Pretty good picture using the timer I think.

Friday was field day at school. The preschoolers have been reading Clifford Goes to the Circus, and the teachers asked our field day activities have a circus/carnival theme. And a couple of very creative moms did a fabulous jobs pulling that off. I enjoyed being in charge of a couple of water games that were not at all creative, but pretty fun I hope.

Last year Luke cried the entire time of field day. Cried when they came out. Cried when he came to my station. Cried when he went to the other stations. Cried during the group photo. You get the idea. So this year when I saw the kids marching out to the playground I was holding my breath. And I cringed when I heard his cries. I saw Judy move to his side and talk with him and a friend motioned for me to wait before I intervened. He quickly calmed down and joined his best buddy Cooper. He went to all the stations and had a blast.



After Luke had moved on from my station, Ms. Judy came to find me telling me I needed to see something. And there was Luke, with his face painted. And I cried. I mean that is just amazing. My boy who just months ago screamed his little lungs out during a haircut, fighting us with every ounce of strength he had, let a stranger put wet paint on his face! She said he got a little freaked out at first and Mrs. Marcie held his hands and said, "Cooper is getting his face painted. Don't you want to too?" Mrs. Marcie has been great with Luke.

That's Mrs. Marcie with the mirror. Very good idea to let him see what was happening.

Best buds.

Luke's all about drawing portraits lately. His favorite medium is dry erase marker. This is a portrait of Daddy. Uncanny resemblance. I'm really proud he's able to do this and enjoying it.

I mentioned in another post that Luke was really into Channel 4 news, particularly the meteorologists. Yesterday as we got in the car he asked me out of the blue, "Where is that Lisa Spencer?" Well, a couple of weeks ago we were up early on a Saturday. I flipped on Channel 4 news and Luke said, "There's Nancy Van Camp and . . . who else?" I didn't know the reporter's name. He wouldn't stop asking and was getting frustrated so I said, "Um, that's Jennifer."

Well, the next Saturday I was up early again. Luke stumbled out of bed and found me sitting in the recliner watching the news again. He climbed in my lap, looked at the TV and said, "There's Nancy Van Camp and Jennifer." Just then their names appeared on the screen and I said, "Luke, her name isn't Jennifer. It's Sara Dorsey." He studied the TV screen and said, "It looks kinda like Jennifer."

Summer is coming quickly, though the cold air this evening would make you think otherwise. Last week, Luke discovered the joy of getting a drink from the hose.

We're very exciting about our upcoming beach vacation. Luke tried out his new swimsuit last week. Of course it's Thomas. That's a sprinkler he is holding. He carried it on his arm marching and singing, "Ha le la le la le lujah". Always entertaining!

So there's just a few highlights from the last weeks (I'll spare you the story of Luke crying all the way to church because he wasn't the one to open the garage door. Only if we had an audio recording would it be truly meaningful.) Thanks to anyone who follows us. This week I got an email from a friend whose child was just diagnosed with autism and she said she was encouraged reading about Luke. I started the blog for me, but if another mom or two who are struggling get a little encouragement, despite my long-windedness and the many mistakes we've made, I'm thrilled.